Sunny Cracker Day Parade

Celebrates Florida Pioneers

It was Cracker Day in Deerfield Beach on Saturday for the 47th time, with bright blue skies and perfect temperatures harkening back to the first 43 celebrations.

Rain had dampened the past three Cracker Days, but before that, the record for sunshine was perfect, said Walter Mollo, a member of the event's sponsor, the Deerfield Beach Lions Club.

Weather is about the only thing that changes on Cracker Day, one of the rare enduring elements of life in South Florida. The Lions Club threw the first one in 1949. It was a barbecue in Pioneer Park, where the event is still held.

The years have taken their toll on attendance, Mollo said.

"All our old-timers that came year after year, they're too old, they don't come anymore," said Mollo, who has worn the same yellow Lions Club vest to the past 23 Cracker Days, a stained garment almost completely covered with pins from Lions Clubs around the country.

Cracker Day is named for the Florida pioneers known as "crackers."Where they got that name is uncertain, although some say it is because of the sound of the whips early settlers cracked over the heads of their mules.

This year's two-day celebration kicked off on Saturday with a parade down Hillsboro Boulevard, much like just about any parade you'd see in any small town in America. Hundreds of people lined the route from State Road A1A to Northeast Sixth Avenue.

Four police motorcycles and four police bicycles circled down the road, leading the parade. The Grand Marshal was Broward County Sheriff Ron Cochran, perched somewhat uncomfortably atop a powder blue Mercedes-Benz convertible from which a woman threw candy.

Bands from the city's schools marched and played. Shriners wheeled by in small cars, wearing fezzes, smoking cigars and squirting people on the curb with water. The Century Village trolley drove past.

Everyone ended up in Pioneer Park, where men took off their caps when Deerfield Beach High School student Brian Horan played the national anthem on his trumpet.

Then a Catholic priest said a prayer and attempted to fire up the crowd of about 100.

"I'm Father Mac from St. Peters Cathedral Church, and I'm half-crazy!" the Rev. John H. Maclaren declared after his amen.

Cracker Days will continue at Pioneer Park today from noon until 5 p.m.